Wednesday, May 7, 2014

No Helmet

Today was "Bike (or walk) to School Day" around here. We have two extra kids staying with us for a couple of weeks while their mom is out of state with the National Guard, so it was a bit more of a production for us to participate, but the kids were motivated so we did it. It was Quinn's first time biking to school since he learned how to ride last summer, so he was really proud of himself, and I was impressed that he had no problem doing the nearly two mile route. Our youngest guest doesn't bike yet, but she took her scooter about a third of the way before that became too much and we packed her up into the bike trailer for the rest of the trip. It was a lot of fun, and definitely something worth making the effort to do again.

This got me thinking, though, about one of the choices I make that diverges from the norm in parenting circles nowadays:

I prefer not to wear a bike helmet. I hate them. I have a nice one, and I do wear it when I know I will be using busy streets or I'm participating in an event where it's required, but otherwise? No thanks. And when just biking around the neighborhood? I don't make my kids wear them either.

My kids all own bike helmets. On the long ride to school, or anywhere that involves riding in the street, I make them put them on, but if they are just biking around the block or in the alley I do not. If they want to wear their helmets that's up to them, and most of the time they do, but it's not a rule.

I know this might be shocking to some other parents because I seem fairly reasonable, and this is about safety! The children! Head injuries! But when I look at the relevant information out there I'm not convinced. If helmets are such a good idea we should be wearing them while just walking around, and I don't see anyone doing that. Based on head injury data and teenagers they should be wearing helmets in cars, and that's not going to happen.

I think it's always interesting to see where different people draw the line at certain risks. I don't take many, frankly, which may look boring. I have never had a drink, I don't smoke, I've never tried recreational drugs, I don't keep a gun in my home, I leave the safety guards on my power tools.... I see people engage in behaviors every day that make me uncomfortable who would also be quick to judge my choice to bike without a helmet. I think that's fascinating.

I always wear a seat belt in the front of the car. That's the law, and it's what I'm used to and I don't mind it. Cars are dangerous, and seat belts are a good idea. But I remember once, years ago when I was in some odd situation where one of my kids was alone in the backseat of the car on a booster, and we were about six blocks from home and there was a seat belt problem and I said to sit tight and not worry about it. When we got home my kid said, "Whew! I didn't get hurt!" And I laughed and said, "Your seat belt has never done ANYTHING. It's there in case of a crash, but we haven't had a crash. We wear it just in case, and I hope it never has to do anything, but no, your seat belt has not actively all this time kept you from getting hurt."

Helmets also don't magically make you safe. There are even some studies that correlate increased helmet use with higher incidents of injury (for a variety of reasons). The best way to keep bikers safe is by increasing their numbers so that drivers become more aware of them. Enforced helmet use actually detracts from that goal.

Am I arguing that in an accident helmets don't protect you from head injury? No, of course they do. (Although they do nothing to prevent concussions.) When I do any long distance biking or have to share roads with drivers I don't trust I always wear my helmet. But on a typical bike trip to work where I may only cross one busy intersection and otherwise remain on calm and pleasant side streets, I leave my helmet at home.

For me, the fun of riding my bike is being free. It's one of the few times I feel exactly the way I did when I was a kid (back when I don't remember anyone ever wearing a helmet). I love that sensation of coasting on a beautiful day where it's like flying, with the wind in my face and hair. It's glorious. A helmet clamped to my head like some kind of salad bowl with straps around my chin diminishes that pleasure just enough that if I had to endure it every time in order to bike I might not bother. It's hard for me to lose awareness of a helmet when I'm wearing one. It's distracting, irritating and unpleasant. So for me, not wearing it is worth the risk.

I leave that choice to my children as well, which may seem outrageous to others, but we'll just have to agree to disagree. It's a nearly literal example of "bubble wrapping" our children, and there is enough of that in our culture. (We don't even own knee or elbow pads, people. My kids can survive an occasional scraped knee.)

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to the daily bike ride to school and back. It's still cold here, but I'm glad that my kids want to get up early and brave the chill in the air. It's worth it to have that extra time together, spotting different kinds of birds in the park as we go, and to get everyone moving for half an hour before they settle in at school. I'm glad they love to bike because I love it, too. (Just, you know, not with a helmet.)

31 comments:

A concussion is a brain injury, but seeing as your brain is part of your head I can understand seeing it that way. However, anyone who treats football players can tell you helmets don't protect you from that type of head injury.

I would argue that the distinction you make between riding to school or on the road versus riding in the neighborhood is a specious one. In fact, it is similar to the argument people used to make for only wearing seatbelts on the highway and not around town. A force vector is a force vector. Our worst bicycle accident occurred within 50 feet of our house, nowhere near a road. The helmet cracked. The kid's head didn't. I am a fan of helmets.

Also, if they have always ridden bikes with helmets, they don't feel as though they are losing freedom, the way we do. That's what I have observed with my kids, anyway.

That said, my kids ride scooters without helmets, my logic being that they have less distance to fall and aren't going as fast. I realized I was sort of wrong about that while watching my daughter zip at about 100 mph down a slope of our golf course and careen around a corner and over a bridge. Still, I can't bring myself to make her put on the helmet for scootering. I can't be logical ALL THE TIME.

The argument is a good one! Except the speeds at which my kids are moving as they cruise around the neighborhood and the types of falls they might have strike me as very different from the dangers posed by biking in busy streets, so I see enough of a distinction to merit a difference in the rules. And they are welcome to wear helmets and often do, I'm just not going to jump all over them if they don't want to just to bike in circles in the empty lot at the end of the dead end street.

I'm really glad your kid was saved by a helmet. That must have been incredibly scary.

When one of the kids rode her scooter part of the way to school today we made her wear a helmet because she was on the same route as the bikes. I suppose if all my kids wanted to scooter that kind of distance and across intersections I would make them wear helmets for that, but around the neighborhood? Nah.

I think it's fine if other people want to wear helmets, I'm just glad to have option not to. In Wisconsin there isn't even a helmet law for motorcycles, which I find kind of crazy because that seems like an insane risk and one I wouldn't take. Weirdly, I often feel safer without my helmet, though. I've noticed drivers give me more room than when I have my helmet on. But I understand why other people don't want to be without one. I just hate the feel of it.

Oh I saw the video about wearing helmets in car for safety, including crash test dummies. We're not ready for that. We're not ready for belts on buses either. Last time I wore a bike helmet the front pad was missing and the rough velcro on my forehead certainly took fun out of the ride. Luckily my children seem to find helmets cool as everyone is wearing them, including for skiing.

My kids wear helmets period. I have two skateboarders in the house and I make the same rules for bikes as I do for the skateboards. Aidan is regularly the only kid/adult of his ability at the skate park wearing a helmet and pads. He has scratches all over his helmet where he's smacked the ground while skating and says often that his helmet saved him from injury. To me, it's not worth the chance even if it's very small that their head could hit the cement. A kid near us stepped onto his board, not moving, fell back without his helmet on and is now facing permanent brain damage. Properly fitted and worn helmets are worth the discomfort for me. I don't like wearing mine, but I don't think I'm a very good example for the kids if I don't wear one and make them do it.

With the kinds of tricks your son does on his skateboard it makes good sense for him to wear a helmet. (He's pretty amazing.)

I think often about a friend of my mom's who was out walking her dog, stepped off a curb onto black ice, and permanently messed up her ankle. The worst falls I've had in the past few years were a random one in a parking lot, and falling up a step onto our deck. Quinn has a scar from tripping over a cord in the dining room and smashing his face into the china cabinet. The one time Mona took a potentially fatal fall that sent her to the hospital she was climbing a fence in the park. I guess I just perceive the world very differently, because I don't really see my kids rolling around on wheels with a certain amount of skill as being that much more dangerous than any other venturing out and about. What about on monkey bars? Or climbing trees? Or when when babies are first learning to walk and bashing their heads into things all the time? It would be very easy to make a case that children should simply wear helmets all the time everywhere because there is always a risk of injury.

We all draw our lines in different places. This is one of the few where I know I'm in the unfavorably judged crowd, but no matter where I draw that line someone will still think I'm wrong.

We do have a law in our county for wearing bike helmets, but for me it's really centered around the skateboarding and it's easier to have one rule and stick with it. I'd probably think a bit differently if we didn't have such extreme sports little dudes in our family. I just want to keep their heads away from the cement. I totally support you having your own stance and am proud of you for putting it out there. I hope you don't think I think any less of you as a mom....heck some mom's I know would never let their kids touch a skateboard or hunt for snakes let alone do what Aidan does in both regards. Cheers! And way to start a lively discussion :)

I think I would feel differently, too, if my kids were daredevils on any level, but they just aren't. When you have kids who want to stop every five feet on their bikes to pick dandelions to put in their baskets it's really hard to see them as needing head protection for that. They are not risk takers generally.

OK so, before I even start typing the rest of this comment, I want to say that I completely respect your decision on helmets for yourself and your children. It is your decision to make, and you are an intelligent person who is capable of looking at the risks and deciding for yourself. :) So none of the following is supposed to be a critique / judgement of you.

Now, some background about me to preface the rest of my comment: I must be just enough younger than you to have grown up in the generation that had to wear helmets all the time. So it doesn't seem nearly as strange to me to wear a helmet- I think I'd feel naked riding without it! (Plus, it is the law in our state. I think.) Another (very important) detail: I am a Speech Language Pathologist specializing in neurologic cognitive disorders, which basically means what I do all day long is (try) to help people with brain injuries: from concussions to severe TBI... etc etc etc. I do treat football players. And car accidents. And bike accidents. And motorcycle accidents. And soldiers returning from combat zones with multiple blast wave injuries. And I treat those who slip on ice, fall off ladders, trip going down the stairs, get metal doors opened onto their heads, and every other imaginable (and some seemingly impossible) ways for people's brains to become injured. Believe me, if someone has found a way to hit their head, I have seen it. I work in both the acute care (i.e.: right after you get to the major hospital) to the rehab center (once you are doing a little better but still need to be getting a lot of therapy in the hospital) to the outpatient setting (which is actually where I spend most of my time).

All that to say: From my experience, helmets are incredibly important and can make a huge difference in the severity of the injury acquired if an accident were to happen. I've seen quiet a few people who are, tragically, completely and permanently disabled from a bike accident- even accidents that don't involve collisions with cars (and not even at high speeds- one was riding up a hill, couldn't have been moving that fast!). By far and away, when I see in the health history "bike accident without a helmet" the deficits are more severe and long-lasting compared to "bike accident with a helmet." And yes, it is definitely possible to hit your head doing just about anything. But the bulk of my caseload comes from bike accidents, car accidents, military, and sports- while just a few "random injuries" come through every now and then- though more ice injuries in the winter, of course. So most of it comes down to how likely you are to get hurt doing a particular activity. You could trip walking down the stairs. And you probably even walk down the stairs more than you ride a bike. But for whatever reason, I see more bike accidents than stair-tripping accidents. I do not know how any researcher could possibly determine which activities are more riskier than another (trying to control the variables would be a nightmare), so it is up to us to decide for ourselves where we think the bigger risks lie.

(Blogger now tells me this comment is too long and I have to finish it elsewhere. Sheesh. I am sorry. I'm way too verbose).

It is, indeed, very possible to get a concussion with a helmet on (ugh, football- worst sport ever- seriously- at one point I had six high school football players with concussions in one day! For girls, the worst sport is volleyball- which I don't think of as being that rough- but I do get quite a few volleyball concussions!! I notice they don't have helmets. Hmm.). But without helmets, I think those football players would be a lot worse off.

So my kids wear helmets. All the time. Even on our back patio on their trikes, which, lets face it, they are probably not going to hurt themselves on and I know it's completely unnecessary, but it makes my life easier to say: bike = helmet ALL THE TIME rather than try to make exceptions a four year old can comprehend. When they are older I'd like to pretend I'd give them more say in it, but knowing myself probably not ;) I'm with you completely on the knee pads, though- break a leg? Yeah, that's fixable. Even the worst of breaks probably wouldn't cause a permanent disability. Scrape a knee? Um, you'll survive, kid. But the brain- yeah, you can't really get that back.

There is actually a reason why babies can basically concuss themselves every other day while learning mobility, and still come out without major head injuries, but I'll spare you, this comment is getting too long and is possibly getting boring :)

So, that is the very, very long explanation as to why my kids will wear helmets until they are too old for me to tell them what to do. :) When I look at the risks, my work experience clouds my judgement and I draw a hard line for them. When you look at the risks you see it differently, which is fine too. You're right- no matter where you draw the line, someone will think you're wrong.

Besides, the Europeans generally agree with you. they won't wear helmets. They don't like how they look / feel. This caused someone to develop this interesting scarf-jacket thing. Basically, it looks sort of like a light jacket with a somewhat thicker collar. But it has a bunch of tiny sensors in it and if you are on your bike and start to fall, it deploys what basically amounts to an airbag around your head, to function as a helmet- without actually having to have something on your head while riding. :) Pretty cool. Although I thought the jackets looked kind of stupid, they were apparently rated very stylishly by people who care more about fashion than me!

I am with Lisa every step of the way. I also agree that it is your decision to make as a parent. At my house, anything with wheels = helmet. This is so it becomes a habit and not a question. My Dad suffered a TBI while riding his bike. He was wearing his helmet and that saved his life. It did not keep him from any injury, but kept him for a more catastrophic one. As anyone with a brain injury knows, there is no 100% recovery, but he is fully functioning and working with his deficits every day. He didn't have grandchildren at the time of the accident. Now he has 3. I am so thankful that he knows them and that they know him. My daughter and my Dad have such a special bond and I cringe when I think that that relationship would not exist if he had not been wearing a helmet. I am grateful he did.

I also raced bicycles as a teenager at the national level. I have seen people riding 5 mph fall over, hit their head *with* a helmet on and begin convulsing. I hate to imagine what would have happened without a helmet.

One should also recognize that designing helmets is a tricky task. Helmets can only be optimized in their design to a limited range of speeds, yet everyone uses the same set of helmets whether they are kids riding or professionals racing. I, for one, think that more research needs to be done in this area. I am grateful that the NFL is finally putting more money into developing this technology which can help the players and also may be helpful to the cycling and other communities.

My personal opinion is that there are risks worth taking and risks not worth taking. For me and my family, the slight discomfort of wearing a helmet does not out-weight the benefits of wearing one given the risks of bike-riding.

Lisa, Thank you for writing your lengthy comment based on your professional experience as opposed to my largely personal one. It was insightful to read.

Thank you so much for sharing your story, Suzanne. I'm so glad you still have your dad. And your reasons for what you do make perfect sense and I'm glad you are comfortable with the rules you've made for your family.

I don't always see things the same way, though. For instance, the person falling and convulsing with the helmet may have not hit themselves at the same angle without it and not have had as severe a problem. We can't know. My own dad's story about avoiding death involves a car accident where he insists NOT wearing the seat belt saved him. There is so much random chance in our circumstances. You can do absolutely everything right and still have the worst possible thing happen.

I think it's good that my kids don't mind their helmets and are therefore more likely to wear them. They are cautious children, so they will likely continue to in the future.

I, however, really can't stand it. It sucks they joy out of the activity for me. There is not a minute when I'm wearing a helmet that I am not thinking, "I hate this helmet!" I take so few risks. I am so impossibly boring. I'm not going to let others begrudge me of this one dopey indulgence so that I can bike in a way that I enjoy.

Huh. I attempted to leave another comment earlier but I see it doesn't show up... sorry if this is a duplicate (because clearly, you need to hear MORE from me, hahaha).

I was just going to say that while I obviously would love to hear any further thoughts you have, please don't feel like you "have" to respond just because I left an essay in your comments :) I really just wanted to share how my perspective on this developed... not that I think I need to 'convince' you or sway you to my side. Believe it or not, I don't think your opinion on helmets is crazy, or even really in the minority at all- I have many friends who have a similar view to you. I fully acknowledge that my experiences may have made me the "crazy" one who is a little overboard with helmet-as-bubble-wrap. I don't care, I sleep better as Bubble Wrap Mom, I've accepted this side of myself :)

But thank you to both you and Suzanne for the nice comments :) And Suzanne, your story about your dad made me tear up. I am forever trying to "gently" explain to my patients that a brain injury is not something you fully "recover" from, but rather become adept at living with- and there is so much joy in that, however dire it may seem at the time. I'm so glad your dad got to that place. I'm so glad your children know him. And if he should ever have the opportunity to participate in a brain injury support group, and is open to that kind of thing, I can tell you he would probably be very encouraging to a lot of people. :) (Coming from someone who helps people learn to make this adjustment, I can tell you that the words of those who have lived it are often more valuable than anything some therapist has to say.)-Lisa

I always love reading your comments (long or short!). You are one of those balanced mom voices I truly value and wish more people could emulate in terms of offering your own firm perspective without sounding like you are condemning others.

I think the phrase "clouds (your) judgment" is a bit dismissive (probably because you are trying to politely soften the force of your argument). You are far more informed in this area than most and I really appreciate your sharing what you know. People in specific fields do tend to develop somewhat skewed judgement, though. I try to remember most people don't damage their violins, since all I see are instruments that need repair. I think police officers may end up with an exaggerated sense of how many trouble makers are out there when that's all they deal with. I know one animal rescue person who feels like everyone is evil to stray dogs and cats because she sees so many abused animals, and I have to remind her that my little rescue dog is fine, as is my neighbor's foster dog, etc. etc. She doesn't see the success stories, so she loses perspective on how many more of those there may be. In your case, you have no way to know how many people come out of bike crashes just fine because they would never need to see you. But your accounts of degrees of damage in similar circumstances are concerning and I can see why they would make a very strong impression. And I can see how your experience would impact your decisions on related issues for both you and your kids.

It got me thinking about what we're protective of and why. For instance, one of our absolute no exceptions rule is if you use the band saw (yes, my kids can use my tools) you must wear eye protection. I would sometimes be lax about putting on my goggles where I used to work, and my boss said, "But, it's your EYES." Not worth risking one's eyes to use the band saw.

Also, when you sort of said that breaking a bone was fixable, I winced. I am more protective of my hands than anything. I have a floating bone chip in my left hand that I live in fear of making its way into a joint and requiring an operation to dislodge. That's not worth correcting until I have no choice because cutting into my hand.... Well, it would likely never be the same in terms of playing viola. I know musicians who don't cook because it's too big a risk. One of that saddest sights I've ever seen was when someone had the idiotic idea to have our summer orchestra camp back in high school play softball at our end of the season picnic. NOBODY was going to catch a fly ball thank you very much. (And everyone batted so lightly we may as well have been bunting.) So the range of what is risky behavior is huge and depends entirely on what you do and what you value. (And, for the record, it's highly unusual that I both play and build violins. Most makers don't play, and I'm reminded why every time I cut a finger right before a concert.)

So, the brain. Big fan of the brain. My brother is all about the brain, and my undergrad degree specialized in Music Cognition and perception work (plus I think I have all of Dr Sack's books, so lots to learn and enjoy about the brain). I take an extreme stance on not altering the brain through substances like drugs or alcohol because that scares me. The only reason I exercise regularly is to stave off dementia.

But we also can't be perfect all the time. Everyone is entitled to some kind of indulgence that seems unwise. For myself it will be the occasional risk of helmetlessness. Because you are right, I am old, and some things it's just too late to get accustomed to. If it became the law here to wear a helmet, I would bike less. I'm sure that seems stupid to someone for whom it's not a big deal. To me it feels different.

However, I will read your comments to my kids. They are of a generation that is accustomed to helmets, so it doesn't bug them. Their childhood memories will include everyone they know in helmets when on bikes. They are entitled to know what risks there are in not wearing them, regardless of what anyone (including their mother) does or does not do. I'm a little concerned that reading your comments may scare them into even sleeping in helmets because my kids are so cautious. I actually wish they would take more risks than they normally do, really, because I'm worried they are not experiencing enough in life as it is, because the example their mom usually sets is incredibly dull. (Luckily their uncles are WILD, like, explore the rain forest at night /climbing trees/ knocking boulders off cliffs in India while dangling from ropes WILD, so they are at least related to true risk takers.)

Thanks for all the work you do helping people with their recoveries. You're awesome, and the people you work with are lucky to have you.

Well thanks for your reply... especially its verbosity... makes me feel a little better about myself!!

Tell your kids not to wear helmets to bed. The only people I see with brain injuries from falling out of bed are elderly. So based on this data alone, they will definitely be fine in bed for years to come. :)

I'm actually really dull too, but occasionally do something weird and risky, so I can completely appreciate that helmets might be your one risky "thing". :) We all have one (or two, or three...).

You know, you are so spot on with the broken bone comment. I should've known better- I personally think a broken bone is fixable, no biggie, but my piano-playing husband was incredibly stressed when he broke a finger on his left hand a few years ago (and I'm sitting here going, the left hand, who cares?!) But even though he had it surgically repaired and did all kinds of therapy in an attempt to get more mobility, he still says he notices it when he's playing piano. (Not that he plays professionally, but still...) So yes. I might be all cavalier with my hands, but there are situations where one would not want to be!!

Ironically, I realized later, in all my commenting I completely forgot - I had a serious bike accident in college in which I flipped over the front of the handlebars and landed on my face. My jaw was "shattered" (sounds so dramatic, just means it broke it two places). But my helmeted head was fine... no concussion, even. So it's likely a little bit of personal-accident-post-traumatic stress that makes me such a helmet fan, too.

Also, your orchestra-playing-baseball story REALLY makes me laugh. :) I can just picture the genius who thought that one up scratching their head about all these kids who are "afraid" of the ball... -Lisa

Serious bike accident would certainly personalize it. Yikes. I once fell over in slow motion while stopped with Aden strapped into a bike seat behind me, and I have a scar on my pinky where I once took a chunk out of that finger by scraping into the mirror of a parked car while on my bike back in Jr High, but otherwise I don't think I've ever had an accident. I biked a LOT in college, too, but no wipe outs. Maybe it's just hard for me to relate to since I've been lucky.

It's clear you aren't looking to be convinced. Man did this bring out the verbosity in your readership though! :) You are right about the surprise factor-this was not what i expected when i saw the url on Facebook!

It's not that I'm not willing to be convinced, it's just most of the arguments I hear are ones I've already considered. I do my best to keep an open mind on many things, and I'm always interested in hearing something new.

And I knew this post would illicit strong reaction, but thankfully my readers are polite. Honestly, I just felt like poking a hole into whatever image people I don't know may have of me. It's very easy on a blog to craft a particular image or phrase things in a way that will leave people nodding in agreement. We fill a vacuum with what we choose. If we like someone, we tend to assume they agree with us on other things too. That causes me to toss out sometimes irrelevant looking details in otherwise innocuous posts just to carve out a bit of my own identity. I often have people jump to conclusions about my sharing their religion or a particular political stance, and when they are wrong they are confused. More of us need to be confronted with the fact that we can like someone and still disagree on particular issues.

So I figured there was zero chance of anyone agreeing with me on this. But sometimes it's good to be uncomfortable. This is an honest blog. If I write in a way that no one ever takes issue with, it isn't real. (Besides, if I'm not willing to put myself out there, people like Lisa wouldn't have any reason to share so much fascinating stuff.)

I biked EVERYWHERE as a kid, granted in a very small town so traffic wasn't ever an issue, and I had some spectacular wipe outs and crashes. I never hit my head though, my elbows and knees? Different story. I managed to survive, I'm with you, I often choose not to bike because I don't want to wear a helmet.

I literally biked to Hell and back when I was in college. My best friend and I biked from the suburbs of Detroit out to Hell, Michigan one summer, about 50 miles away (mostly so we could write postcards to people saying, "I'm in Hell, wish you were here"), and I'm trying to remember if I wore a helmet or not. I think my friend did because I remember us joking about "helmet head" at some point. I don't think I bothered to buy my first helmet until I was out of college. (Gabby? Are you out there? Did I wear a helmet to Hell? I need to go look through my photo album....)

My friend Christy and I have had this discussion on numerous occasions. She wants her kids to wear helmets when they do *anything* that could involve them hitting their heads (sledding, biking, etc.). I swear, I think she'd have them wear them all the time if she could...

I LOATHE helmets. I wear them because it's the law here and I need to model it for my children. I think they're to the point where they feel naked without one, much like I do when I'm sitting in the car without my seatbelt on. Something just doesn't feel *right*.

Nobody but professional cyclists wore helmets when I was growing up. It never occurred to us to wear one. There are so many new things out there to keep us "safe" it's a wonder we made through childhood to adulthood because WE didn't have them. ;o)

Your comment reminds me of a friend telling me she remembers getting to play with mercury with her bare hands in school, and how she and her siblings used to play with a block of lead. She looked at me and said, "Why am I alive?"

Exactly! :oD My mom talks of loving to go to the shoe store and have her feet x-rayed when she was a kid. How about no car seats when we were kids? Or the cribs we had. Or any of a number of things. It's amazing we're alive. ;o)

That's interesting, thanks for sharing! One of my favorite pieces they ever did was on car seats, and how essentially what saves lives is the seat belt itself, not the whole silly overpriced seat. (I recently heard a report of a study saying kids should really be rear-facing in a car until they are 4 or 5 and it just made me glad my kids are getting old enough I don't have to care.)